Playboy founder Hugh Hefner dumped at the altar (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Heartbroken Playboy founder Hugh Hefner said on Tuesday his wedding this weekend was canceled because his 25-year-old fiancee, a Playmate from his magazine, changed her mind.

Hefner, 85, and Crystal Harris were due to tie the knot in front of more than 300 guests at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles on Saturday. It would have been Hefner's third marriage.

"The wedding is off. Crystal has had a change of heart," Hefner wrote on Twitter.

"The breakup is a heart breaker, but better now than after the marriage," he added later.

He also denied a report on celebrity website TMZ.com that the couple had had "a nasty argument" on the phone.

Adding insult to injury, he said Harris took his favorite pet, a cocker spaniel named Charlie, when she moved out of the mansion.

On the other hand, Hefner said he has been consoled by his coterie of old pals and his former wife Kimberley Conrad, and announced he would be hosting a screening of "Runaway Bride."

Hefner proposed to Harris on Christmas Eve, he announced on Twitter at the time. Since then Hefner has been planning the nuptials in between serving as hands-on editor of Playboy and entertaining family and friends at movie screenings and backgammon games.

A two-hour TV special featuring wedding highlights was due to air July 13 on the women's cable channel Lifetime.

Hefner and second wife Conrad, a former Playmate now 48, divorced in 2010 after a lengthy separation. His first marriage to Mildred Williams ended in divorce in 1959. He has two children from each marriage.

Hefner, known around the world by his nickname, Hef, has championed sexual freedom and civil rights, published stories challenging McCarthyism and the Vietnam War, and backed gay causes and the legalization of marijuana.

With a cover featuring a calendar photo of Marilyn Monroe, Hefner put together the first issue of Playboy on the kitchen table in his Chicago apartment in 1953 at a cost of $600. It sold 51,000 copies -- enough to finance a second issue -- and led to a multimillion dollar international corporation, which Hefner recently took private.

Raised in San Diego by British parents, Harris met Hefner at his annual Halloween party in 2008.

She moved in to the mansion after a few weeks and became Playboy's Playmate of the Month in December 2009. She will be on the cover of the magazine's upcoming July issue.

(Reporting by Dean Goodman; Editing by David Lawder)

Yahoo! News

The exit factor: Britain's sweetheart dumped in US (AP)

LONDON — In northeastern England they say she's a canny lass — and maybe that's the problem.

British sweetheart Cheryl Cole has reportedly been dumped from U.S. television, and tabloid media say she lost her big break in part over fears American audiences wouldn't understand her regional accent or the phrases unique to her corner of Britain.

Cole, whose rags-to-riches showbiz story has captivated her country, had been expected to appear as a judge on Simon Cowell's "The X Factor" due to premiere in the United States later this year. But on Friday Britain's tabloids announced the 27-year-old had been removed as a judge, and her official status with the program, which has already started shooting, remains unclear.

Ann-Marie Thomson, public relations chief for Cowell's entertainment company, declined comment when called by The Associated Press. But Sinitta Malone, a guest presenter on the British version of "X Factor," told ITV television that Cowell and Cole were in talks "trying to sort something out."

Whatever happens, Cole's absence would dent her dreams of graduating to American — and international — celebrity. It's an ambition that seemed widely shared by her fans, and indeed by Britain's tabloid media, which have treated her with unusual deference over the years.

Born Cheryl Tweedy, Cole has long been dubbed the nation's sweetheart, a description that owes much to her inspiring rise from a gritty public housing estate in the northeastern England city of Newcastle. Her parents, who never married, split up when she was 11. Her brother was addicted to sniffing glue. Cole herself was expelled from school twice before leaving at 16.

But she had good looks and a good voice. After auditioning for "X Factor"-forerunner "Popstars The Rivals," she was placed in pop group Girls Aloud, which went on to score a string of hits.

Her successful solo career, a marriage to soccer player Ashley Cole and a job judging contestants on the U.K. "X Factor" cemented her stardom.

"It's important that she came through a talent show," said Sanna Inthorn, a professor of media and politics at the University of East Anglia, in eastern England. "The people made her, they chose her, they championed her."

Questions about her accent have been around as long as the idea of moving Cole to the United States.

Cole speaks with what's known in the U.K. as a Geordie accent. Particular to Newcastle, many from the region use words such as "bairn" instead of "child," "hinny" instead of "woman," and "me" instead of "my." Intonation tends to rise at the end of sentences, while vowel sounds tend to shift in such as way that the word "brown" ends up sounding more like "brune."

Finally there's a liberal helping of words such as "pet," "lass" and "like" — many on display as a kindly Cole guided contestants through the British version of "The X Factor."

Inthorn said that Cole's way of speaking was critical to her image as a caring, compassionate working-class girl-made-good.

"Her regional accent is very important," Inthorn said. "'Geordie' — that is itself a kind of endearing term, (suggesting) a down-to-earth, real person who speaks from the heart."

Cole has kept the emphasis on her homey image in the United States, telling American journalists in Los Angeles that "I miss me friends, me family, me tea and me soaps." After reporters were left confused about what kind of soap she was talking about — she meant soap operas — she was asked whether she'd considered changing her accent to suit an American audience.

"I would never, ever change how I speak," she said.

Inthorn said she was confident Cole could recover from the rebuff. "She could come back here and resume her career — because she's been misunderstood by Americans. She's coming back to her true roots," she said.

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Online:

Hear Geordie for yourself on the British Library's website: http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/case-studies/geordie/

____

Raphael G. Satter can be reached at: http://twitter.com/razhael

Yahoo! News

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Lindsay Lohan -- Dumped from Film

4/24/2010 1:00 AM PDT by TMZ Staff   Lindsay Lohan was axed from a movie because she's not "bankable" -- this according a source connected with the production of the flick.

Lindsay was slated to star in "The Other Side," a movie about a grad student working on a deserted island.

David Michaels, the writer/director, tells TMZ, "Our team simply chose to move on from Lindsay and we'll soon be announcing a replacement."

But sources connected with the film tell us the people financing the film were skittish about relying on Lindsay.

The movie also stars Woody Harrelson, Giovanni Ribisi, Dave Matthews and Alanis Morissette.

And there's this twist ... at one point Brittany Murphy was attached to the movie.

Lindsay's rep had no comment.

BTW -- Lindsay was out at Chateau Marmont and Trousdale last night. Photo of her leaving below. Not too difficult to understand where Mr. Michaels was coming from.

Tags: Lindsay Lohan, Michael Lohan, Developing Stories, Movies, Exclusives

TMZ News

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