Carnival ship fire quickly extinguished as ship wallows in Gulf awaiting tug

The Carnival Triumph, a Galveston, Texas-based passenger cruise ship with the theme “Great Cities Around the World,” might have been better off sitting at port, as a court initially ordered.

As of Monday morning the 14-year old ship was going nowhere, operating on emergency generator power after a fire Sunday in one of the diesel generators killed its propulsion. The fire was quickly put out by an automatic fire extinguishing system, and none of the 4,229 passengers or crew are said to be in any danger

All were waiting patiently as a giant tug boat trudged toward the Triumph, now operating under generator power, with the intention of hauling the 100,000 ton, 893-foot vessel to the nearest port in Progreso, Mexico. It is expected in port some time Wednesday afternoon. Carnival Cruise Lines headquarters are in Miami-Dade.

“The cause of the fire is still to be determined,” said Carnival spokesman Vance Guliksen. In a brief news release, Guliksen said “there were no casualties to guests or crew.”

He said all passengers will be flown back to the United States and will be fully refunded.. Carnival said it will cover any additional transportation expenses. Passengers will also receive a free future cruise.

As of 11 a.m. Tuesday another Carnival ship, the Carnival Elation, was on the scene transferring food and beverages.

According to Carnival, some basic auxiliary power has been restored, cabin toilets are working on part of the ship and some elevators are operational. The dining areas are serving hot coffee and limited hot food.

The $420 million Triumph made news early last year after the family of a German tourist killed in the Costa Concordia disaster in the Mediterranean filed a $10 million lawsuit against Carnival. A judge found the family had standing, and ordered the ship held at port in Galveston. The court later allowed the ship to move between ports until a hearing takes place.

The lawsuit contends that Carnival Cruise Lines is the corporate parent of the Costa Concordia.

Read More..

The Backstreet Boys Get Their Own Documentary

Who doesn't want to know the inside story of one of the biggest boy bands in pop culture history?

It's just been confirmed that director Stephen Kijak -- who directed documentaries Stones In Exile and Scott Walker -- is directing a film about the Backstreet Boys' journey from child stars to global sensations, which is being billed as a "tell-all project about all five original members of the band."

Video: NKOTB Takes the Boy Band Quiz

BSB confirmed the news in a statement.

"We always wanted to make a film and now is the ideal time. With Kevin back, the fact that we are masters of our own destiny, a new album in the works and our 20th anniversary -- it all adds up to being the right time to share our story," they said.

Just don't expect a fluffy feel-good film.

"What drew me to this project is their [Backstreet Boys] openness and willingness to push themselves into uncomfortable places, to be vulnerable and honest and to be really trusting of the filmmaking team to steer them in the right direction," Kijak said. "BSB is getting real and it has been exciting to work with them as they explore their past and start to look towards their futures."

Video: Backstreet Resurrects a Classic

Kijak aims to finish the film this fall.

In the mean time, BSB fans can catch them at one of their shows on The Package Tour, which is also bringing back New Kids on the Block, 98 Degrees and Boyz II Men.

Read More..

'Spidey' claims self-defense after allegedly hitting woman in Times Square

A Times Square Spider-Man claimed he was acting in self-defense when he slugged a woman who refused to tip him him yesterday.

Philip Williams, 35-year-old Williamsburg resident, was released without having to post bail this morning after he was charged with assault and harassment.

Williams had posed for pictures with the 44-year-old woman's kids but didn't receive a tip, according to prosecutors.

"Sorry I don't have any [money]," the woman said, according to prosecutors. Williams responded "You're crap," the DA said.

The women then made a snowball and beaned Williams, his defense lawyer and prosecutor agreed.

Steven Hirsch

Philip Williams in court today.

Defense lawyer Rachel Black insisted this was clearly a case of self-defense.

"The complaining witness made contact with my client," she said.

Prosecutors said Williams has a rap sheet that includes a grand larceny and and retail fraud bust when he was 17 and living in Michigan.

Black didn't dispute the DA's claim, but told the Manhattan judge that Williams made all court appearances in that matter.

Cops showed up yesterday near 141 W. 43rd St. after the 3 p.m. and stopped the victim's husband from possibly hurting Williams, law enforcement sources and witnesses said.

“A woman came to me and said, ‘What did you do to me, you f--ker?’ ” said another Times Square Spidey, who wouldn’t give his name.

“Her husband came over and said it was a different Spider-Man. They went over to the other one and started fighting.”

Witnesses said the woman’s husband pounded the offending Spider-Man with a backpack before cops arrived to bust Spidey.

This unwanted attention has other Times Square cartoon characters worried about their livelihood.

“Getting arrested isn’t good for any of us,” said Times Square worker Christian, who dresses as Big Bird. “It makes us all look bad.”

The incident casts another mark on the city’s costumed busker community.

A man wearing an Elmo costume was arrested last September for disorderly conduct after spouting anti-Semitic rants in Central Park. Another man — dressed as video-game hero Mario — was arrested in December and charged with forcible touching after allegedly groping a woman.

Additional reporting by David K. Li

Read More..

Green cards for sale at a South Beach hotel: Competition is on for EB5 investment visas

If David Hart gets his way, South Beach’s 42-room Astor Hotel will be on a hiring spree this year as it adds concierge service, a roof-top pool, an all-night diner, spa and private-car service available 24 hours a day.

New hires will be crucial to Hart’s business plan, since foreign investors have agreed to pay about $50,000 for each job created by the Art Deco boutique.

The Miami immigration lawyer specializes in arranging visas for wealthy foreign citizens under a special program that trades green cards for investment dollars. Businesses get the money and must use it to boost payroll. The minimum investment is $500,000 to add at least 10 jobs to the economy. That puts the pressure on Hart and his partners at the Astor to beef up payroll dramatically, with plans to take a hotel with roughly 20 employees to one with as many as 100 workers.

“My primary responsibility is to make something happen here over the next two years that will create the jobs we need,’’ Hart said a few steps away from a nearly empty restaurant on a recent weekday morning. “It’s all going to be transformed.”

Though established in the 1990s, the “EB5” visas soared in popularity during the recession as developers sought foreign cash to replace dried-up credit markets in the United States.

Chinese investors dominate the transactions, accounting for about 65 percent of the nearly 9,000 EB5 visas granted since 2006. South Korea finishes a distant second at 12 percent and the United Kingdom holds the third-place slot at 3 percent. If Latin America and the Caribbean were one country, they would rank No. 4 on the list, with 231 EB5 visas granted, or about 3 percent of the total.

Competition has gotten stiffer for the deep-pocketed foreign investors willing to pay for green cards. The University of Miami’s bio-science research park near the Jackson hospital system raised $20 million from 40 foreign investors under the EB5 program, most of them from Asia. The money went into the park’s first building; visa brokers are waiting to see if the second building will proceed so they can offer a new pool of potential green-card sales.

In Hollywood, the stalled $131 million Margaritaville resort had hoped to raise about $75 million from EB5 investors before ditching that plan last year to pursue more traditional financing. A retail complex by developer Jeff Berkowitz in Coral Gables also launched a program to raise $50 million in EB5 money for the project, Gables Station. Hart worked with other EB5 investors to back pizza restaurants in Miami and South Beach. A limestone mine in Martin County also was backed by EB5 dollars.

This year, the city of Miami itself is expected to get into the business by setting up an EB5 program to raise foreign cash for a range of city businesses and developments. The first would be the tallest building in the city — developer Tibor Hollo’s planned 85-story apartment tower, the Panorama, in downtown Miami.

With a construction cost of about $700 million, Miami’s debut EB5 venture hopes to raise about $100 million from foreign investors, said Laura Reiff, the Greenberg Traurig lawyer in Virginia working with Miami on the EB5 effort. “This is a marquis project,’’ she said.

The arrangement is a novel one for Miami, with the city planning to help a private developer raise funds overseas for a new high-rise. And it would allow Hollo and future participants to tout the city of Miami’s endorsement when competing with other Miami-area projects for EB5 dollars. “We will have the benefit of the brand of the city of Miami,’’ said Mikki Canton, the $6,000-a-month city consultant heading Miami’s EB5 effort. “A lot of these others are privately owned and they won’t have that brand.”

Read More..

Two Fantasy 5 tickets sold in Broward take $92,069 jackpot

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – Three tickets, two purchased in Broward County, matched all five Fantasy 5 numbers to collect a jackpot worth $92,069.38 each, the Florida Lottery said Sunday.

The winning tickets were bought in Plantation and Tamarac and in Homosassa, lottery officials said.

The numbers drawn Saturday night were 1-3-16-18-25

The 463 tickets matching four numbers won $96 each.

There was no Florida Lotto winner. The jackpot is now $16 million for Wednesday’s drawing.

Read More..

Chris Brown Car Collision

ET has learned that Chris Brown was involved in a solo, non-injury traffic collision in Beverly Hills at noon today, blaming the paparazzi for losing control of his Porsche and colliding with a wall.

Pics: Remembering Whitney Houston

A statement from Lieutenant Lincoln Hoshino of the Beverly Hills police details the incident: "On February 9, 2013 at approximately 12:03 p.m., entertainer Chris Brown was involved in a solo, non-injury traffic collision in the 600 Block Bedford Drive/Camden Drive alley. Mr. Brown was the driver of the vehicle and collided with a wall. Brown stated that he was being chased by paparazzi causing him to lose control of his vehicle. Brown's Black Porsche was towed from the scene at his request."

Related: Rihanna Accompanies Chris Brown to Court

Earlier this week, Brown visited an L.A. courthouse with girlfriend Rihanna on to oppose a motion to revoke his probation stemming from his 2009 assault on Rihanna. Prosecutors claim Brown did not show sufficient evidence that he completed his required community labor sentence. 

Read More..

Man slips off platform, hit by NJ Transit train

RED BANK, NJ — New Jersey Transit says a man suffered a broken leg when he slipped off a train station platform and was struck by a train.

The accident occurred around 6:15 a.m. Sunday in Red Bank.

NJ Transit spokesman John D'Urso Jr. says the man apparently slipped and fell on to the tracks. He was soon hit by North Jersey Coast Line train No. 7208.

No passengers or crew members aboard the northbound train were injured in the accident. The passengers were soon transferred to another train to complete their journey.

The injured man's name was not released. He was being treated at a hospital, but further details on his injuries were not disclosed.

Read More..

Mega mansion frenzy: Buyer snaps up Pat Riley’s $16M home to level it, rebuild

Miami Heat President Pat Riley sold his spectacular bayfront mansion in gated Gables Estates for $16.8 million last March.

The 12,856-square-foot Mediterranean-style dream house at 180 Arvida Parkway has a theater, wine cellar, library, and a sprawling pool with waterfalls and an aqua bar.

But that’s all coming down.

Turns out the lure was the lot: a rare fingertip of prime land, nearly two acres, jutting into the turquoise waters of Biscayne Bay.

In December, the buyer — listed as 180 Arvida LLC represented by Miami attorney Mark Hasner — presented the city of Coral Gables with plans to tear down the home, built in 1991, and erect an even grander estate along the 900 linear feet of bayfront.

“Most people would move in and be perfectly happy, but clients are looking for perfection — really good stuff,” said Jorge Uribe, a senior vice president at One Sotheby’s International Realty, who wasn’t involved but sold an even bigger trophy property last year: a $39.4 million estate at 14 Indian Creek Dr., in Indian Creek Village, dubbed “Miami’s Billionaire Bunker” by Forbes magazine.

“The trend in the last several years is a demand for very high-quality product. People are looking for really good locations, really good materials, and they’re willing to pay for it,” Uribe said.

Miami’s ultra-luxury market is on fire. Prices for the fanciest single-family homes and condominiums have soared to levels never before seen in the area, fueled by strong foreign demand and renewed interest from New Yorkers and others in the Northeast.

With Miami’s global image burnished by Art Basel Miami Beach and the debut of other cultural and entertainment venues, the city is emerging as an even greater magnet for the world’s super-rich.

In January, a penthouse at the Setai Resort & Residences on Miami Beach fetched $27 million, a new high for a Miami-Dade condominium. “Every building we do business in is at its highest price of all time,” said Mark Zilbert, president of Zilbert International Realty, which represented the buyer in the Setai deal.

Last August, a sleek, new home, built on spec at 3 Indian Creek Dr., sold for $47 million, a record high for a Miami-Dade residence. The buyer, whose identity has not been revealed, is Russian.

“People are realizing how valuable the bay waterfront is,” said Oren Alexander, co-founder of the Alexander Group at Douglas Elliman Real Estate, who co-listed the 3 Indian Creek property with The Jills team at Coldwell Banker and represented the buyer for the home. His father, Shlomy Alexander, developed the property with partner Felix Cohen.

Shlomy Alexander is working on two more extravagant spec homes — one at 30 Indian Creek Dr. and a second that is set to break ground shortly at 252 Bal Bay Dr. in Bal Harbour, his son said. Plans envision a tropical modern-style project that fuses the indoors and outdoors — a concept popular in Brazil.

The elder Alexander recently traveled to Italy to shop for exclusive stone for the projects, said the son.

“It’s really trending to the ultra-luxury. All sorts of exotic materials — exotic woods, exotic marbles, exotic stones,” said Sean Murphy, an executive vice president at Coastal Construction, a major builder of luxury hotels and condominiums that also has erected some of the most extravagant mansions in the region. “Everything is so exotic.”

Read More..

Miami-Dade police officer convicted in lewdness case

A Miami-Dade police officer, who routinely stopped women drivers without cause and engaged in lewd conversations, was convicted in federal court Friday.

Prabhainjana Dwivedi, a seven-year veteran, was found guilty on six of seven counts of depriving people of their civil rights. He was found not guilty on the seventh count involving an undercover police officer.

Following the ruling, U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez immediately remanded Dwivedi back into custody pending sentencing scheduled for sometime in April, according to prosecutor Karen Gilbert. The trial began Monday.

Dwivedi faces up to a year in prison for each count.

A grand jury indicted Dwivedi after he was arrested by FBI agents Sept. 5 at Miami-Dade police headquarters.

Dwivedi, 33, was charged after an investigation into complaints filed for stops made in May and June of 2011 in which he detained “numerous women” for “unreasonable” length of time “without probable cause, reasonable suspicion or other lawful authority to conduct a stop,” a criminal complaint said.

None of the questionable stops were ever listed on his daily reports or called into dispatch.

According to the complaint, Dwivedi who worked overnight patrolling an area from Key Biscayne to Jackson Memorial Hospital, stopped a 24-year-old bartender who was driving from South Beach to Broward County on her way home from work at about 5:30 a.m. on June 25, 2011, in the area of the Golden Glades interchange.

The bartender, identified as M.F., was accused by Dwivedi of driving under the influence. Pleading her innocence, she requested to have a sobriety test performed. Her request was refused.

Noticing a child’s safety seat in the back seat, Dwivedi threatened M.F. that she would lose custody of her son if she were to be arrested on DUI charges, the criminal complaint said. Then the conversation turned sexual.

According to the complaint, Dwivedi, began to inquire about her surgically enhanced breasts and asked “if she had any scars or incisions from the surgery.”

Dwivedi then asked to see the scars. M.F. obeyed, lifting her shirt and exposing her breasts.

According to the complaint written by FBI special agent Susan Funk, “M.F. stated that Dwivedi did not touch her breast.”

, Dwivedi then allowed her to drive home, but said he would follow her to make sure she got safely home. Once at M.F.’s residence, Dwivedi said he was thirsty and asked for a glass of water. Once inside her home, he lingered for an hour speaking of his personal life.

In the end, Dwivedi left without ever reporting anything to dispatch or making any notes of the stop in his daily reports, the criminal complaint said.

A month earlier, Dwivedi made another questionable stop.

According to the complaint, Dwivedi stopped a19-year-old woman at 2:20 a.m. on May 27, 2011, on her way home from a nightclub with two friends. The woman, identified, as A.R., was informed the traffic stop was a result of a failure to turn on her headlights.

Dwivedi also claimed she was driving under the influence, but A.R. disputed the accusation.

A.R. was instructed to sit in the back seat of his marked cruiser and then Dwivedi “instructed A.R. to lower the zipper on the front of her dress down past her breasts to her mid-stomach” according to the complaint.

An hour and 20 minutes later, A.R. was on her way home without any citation and Dwivedi again made no mention or note of the stop, the complaint said.

Miami Herald staff writer Jay Weaver contributed to this report.

Read More..

Buzzmakers: David Beckham Strips and Miley Cyrus Loves Her Hair

What had ET readers buzzing this week?

1. David Beckham Strips Down to His Skivvies

He may have a new job with the Paris Saint-Germain team but David Beckham is still finding time to strip down for his American fans. The overwhelmingly good-looking soccer dad shared photos from his new underwear line that he, of course, is modeling. Posting not one, but two shirtless shots, Beckham wrote on his Facebook page: "Here are a few campaign shots from my latest H&M range."

Click here for a closer look at the fashionisto's sexy photos!

2. Miley Cyrus: I'll Never Have Long Hair Again

Though Miley Cyrus' super-short 'do definitely has its fair share of haters, according to Miley herself, she has no intentions of growing it out -- ever.

"You will never see me with long hair again!," she tells E! News. "My fiancé [Liam Hemsworth] loves it…It's so easy and [I] don't need to wash it. It looks better grungy and not washing it."

And clearly, she doesn't miss her formerly long locks "in any way."

"I feel like I had bun every day of my life," she says, referring to her often-copied topknot. "I hated the extensions hair -- that's sewn into your head. It's creepy."

Miley first debuted the drastic cut in August, and seems to be cutting her hair even shorter progressively.

3. Stars Flock to Super Bowl XLVII

Alicia Keys and Jennifer Hudson kicked off the Super Bowl Sunday with stunning renditions of the national anthem and America the Beautiful (respectively).

Check out the pics here!

4. Designer: Beyonce Was 'Losing Weight Every Day'

One of the most anticipated events at this year's Super Bowl was Beyonce's performance during the halftime show and ET spoke exclusively to the superstar's costume designer about her rigorous rehearsals and how much work went into her various outfits.

"When a performer is working so vigorously, they're shrinking constantly, and so she was losing weight every day," fashion designer Rubin Singer told ET. "So we had to keep taking it in and taking it in and taking it in and doing tweaks and changes."

Singer said he was based in New Orleans all last week preparing for Beyonce's Super Bowl performance and that a team of 14 people put about 200 man hours into producing and tweaking the costumes. "When you have the dress rehearsals and you actually get to see the footage the next day, or that night, and you see all the little nuances that you need to change," he said.

In addition to Beyonce's costumes, Singer also created the outfits for former Destiny's Child band member Michelle Williams as well as the jackets for the show's 120 backup dancers.

5. Jennifer Love Hewitt Debuts Lingerie Music Video

Jennifer Love Hewitt's Lifetime series The Client List is known for pushing the envelope with racy story lines and revealing wardrobe. In advance of the show's upcoming second season, we've got a sneak peek of a sexy new music video in which Jennifer sings, struts and strips down to lingerie!

"I had a dream about it in the middle of the night," Jennifer explains about how the video came about. She said she loves the song -- I'm a Woman from the Broadway play Smokey Joe's Cafe -- and thought it would be fun to do something burlesque-oriented "to shake things up a bit."

In the show, Jennifer plays a Texas single mother who secretly also provides sexual favors for money at a day spa. She said one of the things she's most proud of about the show is that she feels it portrays the subject matter in a way that is not degrading to women. "I feel like we've been able to take an unconventional story line and make it female empowerment in some weird way."

Watch the video for scenes from the steamy music video and also to hear Jennifer talk about getting in shape for the shoot and then splurging at the end.

Read More..