McCartney, Pacino, Damon, other stars remember 9/11 (Reuters)

TheWrap Staff

NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Do you remember where you were on the morning of September 11, 2001?

TheWrap asked a number of actors, filmmakers, producers, writers and bloggers, some New Yorkers and others not even U.S. citizens, to remember where they were on that fateful day, and how it changed them.

PAUL McCARTNEY

"I was on my way back to England, and we were at JFK on the tarmac, and the pilot just suddenly said, 'We can't take off. We're going to have to go back to base.' And out of the window on the right-hand side of the airplane, you could see the twin towers. You could see one plume of smoke, and then you could see two shortly thereafter.

I said, 'Well, that's an optical illusion, you know.' Then one of the stewards came to me and said, 'Look, there's been something really serious happened in New York, and we've got to get you out of here.'

I ended up in Long Island watching it on TV, watching the whole story unfold -- like everyone else in the world -- wanting to go into New York, but nobody was allowed back in.

So while I was kind of sitting out there twiddling my thumbs thinking of what to do, was there any role I could play in this, the idea came to me that maybe we could do a concert, maybe get something together. And that thing grew into a conversation with Harvey Weinstein, who said that MTV was putting one together and maybe we should all get together on that. it was a kind of post-fear. We were emerging from the fearfulness of the immediate impact, and now you were seeing the emotion releasing through music, which I always think is a great thing. You could see particularly the firefighters and the volunteers and their families and victims' families were able to release this emotion that had been pent up. It was a great feeling. It was a really great feeling."

AL PACINO

"It was the most terrifying, the most heartbreaking day. I was on a plane the evening before it happened, September 10.

I was in Los Angeles, and all I wanted was to get back to my home -- New York.

I couldn't get back, the planes wouldn't move. It was devastating."

MATT DAMON

"I lived in lower Manhattan at the time. So I just remember walking out of my apartment and seeing it and then going back in and watching CNN 'cause I was so hungry for information, trying to figure out what's going on.

I just remember being glued to my television despite the fact that it was happening kind of right outside my door."

JANE ROSENTHAL (Founder of Tribeca Productions and the Tribeca Film Festival)

"I had just dropped my daughter off at school for second grade, and I was driving to the office. I was supposed to meet with Spike Lee and Harvey Weinstein to talk about "Rent," which we'd been trying to put together.

When I heard the noise, I thought it was a car crash. I turned around in my car, and went further into Wall Street, and around that time I heard the second plane hit. I was listening to New York One. My first reaction was that it was a terrorist attack.

I was on South Street Seaport going north. To get to 30th Street it took almost three hours. I called my husband from a payphone and told him to pick up my daughter. I heard the Pentagon had been hit. At that point, I thought the end of the world was coming. I was probably in a state of shock -- complete disbelief.

When I think back to that day, to how my first instinct was to get out and get to my kids, versus all the fire and police who chose to run in and save people. I think, 'What makes you run in versus run out of a disaster? That has been something I've thought about quite a bit.

That feeling has propelled me to do as much for downtown as I can. Certainly, what we've done with the film festival and the dinners downtown. In a period of duress, what's your instinct, and what does that say about you as an individual?

For me, it's been personally doing everything I can for downtown. Bob (De Niro) and I are on the national 9/11 Memorial Museum board, and the opening will be quite spectacular on September 11.

TOM HARDY

"I was at a wig-fitting. I was doing a French Foreign Legion film, and I was going out to North Africa, Morocco. We'd just done 'Black Hawk Down,' and they shelved that immediately. There were a lot of war films that year being made. A lot of work was being done in North Africa. Everyone had started panicking. And I was executing holy men in a scene three days later in a mosque in Morocco. It was a thing called 'Simon, French Foreign Legion Deserter' it ended up being called. So it was a very odd situation to be in because there I was playing a soldier in North Africa. We had a plane on standby to get us out if anything kicked off.

Immediately, it was a life-changing event. I have friends who serve, I have a lot of friends in special forces, I have very, very close friends who deal in very serious operations all over the Middle East that were affected post-9/11 ... I'm still really thrown by the loss and the amount of people on that day, and that whole situation, to be honest.

I'm a bit thrown. I've got friends who were in the building, in the twin towers. I have friends who are servicemen, what can you say?"

GUS VAN SANT

"I was living on Canal Street and out my window I could see the towers, and I heard an explosion and eventually realized that one of them was on fire. Our office was even closer, so we were eight blocks away on the roof looking at the towers falling.

And we evacuated away from the dust and smoke that was coming our way. I was sort of typical of some reactions where I wasn't really aware of how big a moment it was, which was something that happened with other people in the Tribeca area and Wall Street area. Some people continued working.

We traveled uptown from where we were, and we were on 57th Street, and we realized that people uptown felt it was a downtown problem, and people upstate felt it was a, like, a Manhattan problem.

And elsewhere it was a national problem -- I think if you were in Delaware, you saw it more objectively, like, 'This is a national emergency. This is an amazing, horrible, historical event.' But if you were there, there were many different reactions, and mine was probably one as a result of some kind of shock."

BRYCE DALLAS HOWARD

"I was on Christopher Street, below the 14th Street line, which is kind of like the cut-off, and I heard all this noise and opened my windows. I remember my husband, who was my boyfriend at the time, saying, 'Where's the other tower?' The first tower had already fallen and we were just looking at one tower.

I was so used to seeing the twin towers, I couldn't even understand, really, what I was seeing. I remember it took me awhile to figure out, 'Oh my God, one of the towers is missing!' cause it's just unthinkable. And then we saw the second tower fall, and my husband was sobbing and I was like, 'Oh my gosh, I'm going to be late to class!' I was getting ready to go outside and my husband was like, 'Are you out of your mind?! You're not going outside right now!'"

ROSEANNE CASH

"My daughter Carrie was in seventh grade, and I took her to school in a taxi because there was a meeting that morning., I went into the cafeteria and she went up to her classroom. At about 8:45, I heard a rumble overhead. The plane went right over the school, and shook the building.

I looked around the room, and one of the mothers said, 'That plane is going to crash.' About five minutes later, somebody came to the door and said a plane had just crashed into the north tower.

And I said to one of the teachers who was sitting with me, 'I bet it was that plane that just went over.' At first we thought it was just a commuter plane that had gotten lost. We couldn't conceive that an airliner had actually done it. We stopped the meeting and walked out in the hall, and a woman was out there crying. She said it was a passenger jet, and then we freaked.

I started to walk out the building to go look at the towers, because there was a straight view right down the street. Another mother was coming in, and she was as white as a sheet. She said a second plane had just hit, and I said, 'What are you talking about?' I thought that she was confused.

So I went around to the corner, and you could see both towers burning. There were these black holes, and smoke. A lot of smoke. We were standing there, and my friend Robin Rue, who's a literary agent, said, 'All this in the name of god.' That's when I really realized what had happened, that it was a terrorist attack.

NICK NOLTE

"I was watching TV when it happened. I didn't see the first plane. I saw the second plane. And then on the anniversary of 9/11, I was drunk and picked up for drunk driving.

The reason that picture got on television was, all the cameras were pointing at the place where the terrorists were supposed to hit.

And then there was no news, so they picked that picture up and sent it back."

JOEL EDGERTON

"I was at record launch at a Chapel Street in Melbourne, at a place called Revolver. I'd just finished shooting a movie and one of the locations was a place called The Twin Towers, in Melbourne. And my brother sent me a text message saying, 'A plane has just landed in the twin towers.'

And I was just imagining a two-seater plane landing in this very small building in Melbourne, thinking, 'What is he talking about?' Then the reality of what happened hit and this poor guy was on stage in the second set of his LP launch, and the room just started clearing one by one.

And I remember on my way home thinking, 'That poor guy thinks he's the worst musician in the world.' And then I spent all night watching TV. I remember feeling it was the most worried I'd felt ever in my life, just in general about humanity and about the world, even though it was something so far away from me."

PEREZ HILTON

"I woke up, went upstairs to the roof of my building in the West Village, and saw the World Trade Center with a big hole in it. Then I fell to my knees. I went downstairs, went running to the bank on Christopher Street, got all my cash out, went to the supermarket, and got in hurricane survival mode because I'm from South Florida. I thought it was the end of the world; I didn't know what to think.

"At first, I kept getting phone calls, because I was right out of college and didn't have a full-time job yet, I was so annoyed that people kept calling me early in the morning. I'm like, 'Let me sleep!' And then finally I picked up the phone and then I went upstairs and I saw and it was unbelievable.

Being in New York after that was just crazy because you were reminded of it daily for years after, but especially what I remember most vividly about that time was the smell in the air stayed for about six months or more, and then even longer because whenever it would rain there was this very specific smell from the World Trade Center disaster.

NOTE: Interviews conducted by Jordan Riefe, Steve Pond, Mikey Glazer and Sharon Waxman

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Blanchett, other prominent Aussies back carbon tax (AP)

CANBERRA, Australia – Actress Cate Blanchett and former conservative Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser are among prominent Australians who threw their support Monday behind the unpopular government plan to tax major polluters for the carbon gas they emit.

Blanchett and Fraser were among 140 personalities and organizations who signed a petition distributed to federal lawmakers supporting the center-left government's plan to make polluters pay for every ton of carbon gas they produce in a bid to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The petition — whose signatories also include a Roman Catholic bishop and a Nobel Laureate scientist — is part of a $1 million national newspaper and television advertising campaign funded by environmental groups and unionists.

The conservative opposition Liberal Party is opposed to making polluters pay. The governing Labor Party wants to tax polluters starting in July 2012, and is locked in negotiations with the minor Greens party and independent lawmakers on how much the tax should be on a ton of carbon.

Opinion polls show that both the tax and Labor are unpopular with voters.

John Hewson, an economist and a former Liberal Party leader who signed the petition, said Australian business leaders were not signatories because they are historically slow to respond to economic challenges.

"The business community's starting to come on board," Hewson told reporters at Parliament House.

"It's a pity they're not leading this debate. Unfortunately, as on many occasions in the past, they come, but they come late," he said.

The Business Council of Australia, a leading business lobby, has called for the tax to be set at 10 Australian dollars ($10.69) per metric ton (1.1 tons), while the Greens want the tax to be four times higher. The government has said it will set the price by July.

Liberal Leader Tony Abbott called the proposal a "toxic tax" that businesses increasingly oppose.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has said her government would meet its target of slashing Australia's greenhouse gas emissions to at least 5 percent below 2000 levels by the year 2020.

Australia is one of the world's worst greenhouse gas emitters per capita because of its heavy reliance on abundant reserves of cheap coal for power generation.

Blanchett's participation in the advertising campaign has been criticized, but the Oscar winner says people are entitled to their opinions and she's not deterred.

"Everyone will benefit if we protect the environment. There is a societal cost of increased pollution, and that's what I'm passionate about as a mother," Blanchett, a mother of three boys, told The Sydney Morning Herald.

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Hendricks, Other Full-Figured Celebrities Stay True to Themselves (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | Mad Men actress Christina Hendricks has found herself in an all-too-familiar place recently: defending her figure. Yes, the actress is gorgeous, all five feet, seven inches and 150-something pounds. Of course, not looking the Hollywood norm has her fending off plastic surgery rumors. The actress has come out against accusations that she had breast implants, adamantly stating that her breasts are real, reports CBS. It's an odd thing having to defend yourself for loving you the way you are. In Hollywood, she's not alone.

Years ago, actress Camryn Manheim proclaimed "This is for all the fat girls!" after winning an Emmy for her work on the television show The Practice, according to the Los Angeles Times. She instantly became a role model for women everywhere, showing that you don't have to be too thin to be successful in Hollywood. Since then, the actress has had a steady stream of work, from film to television. She's maintained her stance on weight, and shows no signs of slowing down. She became the voice of many and brought new life to television. Not all women are stick-thin, nor should they be.

If there's any young, positive role model for full-figured women, it's the singer Adele, a major success in the music industry who shows no preference for diets. In a recent Rolling Stone interview, she proclaimed that her life was too dramatic to throw dieting in the mix, adding that her music is for the ears, dismissing the notion that only thin singers are meant to be successful. In recent months, her sophomore album, 21, has dominated album charts without Adele showing any sign of losing pounds. Not only is she immensely talented, but gorgeous, proud and unapologetic to boot.

Another singer known for her voluptuousness and bravado is the leader singer of The Gossip. Beth Ditto is a big girl who lets everyone know it, often stripping down to her underwear in concert. She's appeared on magazine covers wearing either little or nothing at all; who doesn't love a girl who's proud of her body? There's no inch of waif with her, and you can't help but love it.

These women are role models for their unabashed-ness. Women everywhere with any insecurity about their bodies need to know they're not alone, and they have nothing to be ashamed of. These are talented women, known more for their work than for their weight. What a great start to what hopefully becomes the norm: women known more for their talent and work rather than for what they look like. And from the looks of things, there are bound to be many more women like these in their wake.

Sources

David W. Freeman, "Christina Hendricks bares truth about breasts: Did 'Mad Men' star buck implant trend?", CBSNews.com

Toure, "Adele Opens Up About Her Inspiratons, Looks And Stage Fright in New Rolling Stone Cover Story", RollingStone.com

Steve Weinstein, "No Small Feat", the Los Angeles Times

Giles Hattersly, "The Brilliance of Beth Ditto", the Sunday Times

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DC police gave escorts to celebs other than Sheen (AP)

WASHINGTON – District of Columbia police records released Wednesday show Bill Gates and rapper Jay-Z are among the celebrities who have received police escorts similar to the one officers provided last month to actor Charlie Sheen, revealing more widespread use of a practice mostly intended for top government officials and foreign dignitaries.

Records obtained by The Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act request show dozens of escorts have been provided in the last year and a half, including to entertainers, celebrities, college and pro athletes, and sometimes to the teams' owners. The department is routinely reimbursed for the escorts, in amounts ranging from several hundred dollars to, in one case, nearly $80,000, the invoices show.

D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said last month that escorts were generally reserved for the president, vice president and visiting heads of state and the mayor, with exceptions made on a case-by-case basis.

Lanier told The Associated Press on Wednesday that police protocol also allows escorts when there are concerns about public safety or crowd control. She said the celebrity escorts were "all being looked at based on what happened in the Charlie Sheen case," but wouldn't categorically say they were improper and said there's any number of reasons why celebrities or non-dignitaries might be entitled to an escort.

"There are legitimate reasons for many of these escorts," Lanier told the AP, adding, "There may be. I just don't know."

Officers with the special operations division on April 19 provided Sheen an escort, with sirens and lights flashing, from Dulles International Airport — approximately 30 miles from downtown Washington — to a performance at DAR Constitution Hall in the city. The escort attracted attention after Sheen wrote about it excitedly on Twitter, even posting a photograph of a speedometer registering about 80 mph: "In car with Police escort in front and rear! Driving like someone's about to deliver a baby! Cop car lights (hash)Spinning!"

Sheen's concert promoter reimbursed the district $445.68, records show.

Lanier said in an April 22 statement that the Sheen escort appeared to violate department protocol. She also said such escorts weren't intended for celebrities. She said city police escorts weren't supposed to turn on flashing lights and sirens in non-emergency situations and were generally not permitted to travel in other jurisdictions without the assistance of law enforcement agencies in those localities.

Yet records show that several of the celebrity escorts either originated or ended at Dulles or Ronald Reagan National Airport, both in northern Virginia.

An investigation is continuing into whether any of the escorts were inappropriate and how they came to be approved.

"If there isn't a legitimate reason for it, then who made the decision to authorize it and did they follow the proper protocol for authorizing it?" she said.

The escort of Gates — the Microsoft co-founder, billionaire businessman and philanthropist — was provided on Nov. 8, 2010 from the city's convention center to Dulles, according to an invoice for $445.68. He was in Washington that day speaking at a health forum. Gates fully reimbursed the district, said Steve Krystek, director of PFC Safeguards, which coordinates logistics for Gates' travel. He declined to comment on any other aspect of the escort.

D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson, whose committee has oversight of the police department, said he was considering asking for a hearing to hash out the conflicting reports.

"How many conflicting explanations have we gotten from officials regarding what is the truth?" Mendelson asked. "The most damning thing is the stories have been inconsistent."

The escorts were provided at a rate of $55.71 per hour. Many of the escorts cost less than $500, but some were substantially more expensive: Escorts provided for a 2010 meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying group, totaled more than $79,800. That money has been repaid. Escorts protecting the ballot boxes used in last September's primary election cost more than $23,000.

Dignitaries including the UN Secretary-General and the World Bank president have received escorts, as has a former first lady. Police escorts for military funerals are also common, documents show.

The escort of rapper Jay-Z on March 3, 2010 originated at Dulles and spanned from 3 p.m. to 1 a.m. It cost $1,114.20, which has been reimbursed. The invoice doesn't specify where Jay-Z went. A publicist for him had no immediate information on his visit.

Singer Taylor Swift's name also appears on a log of people who have received escorts — on June 1, 2010, the night she performed at Verizon Center in downtown D.C. — though no invoice for her escort was immediately available.

College and professional sports teams as well as owners have also gotten escorts, including to the White House, foreign embassies and to and from stadiums on game day. Owners have also benefited — the Indianapolis Colts owner was escorted Oct. 16 from the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington to FedEx Field in Landover, Md, an invoice says.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello says it's up to teams to decide whether to travel with police escorts in cities they visit.

The documents show John Wall, the No. 1 overall pick in last year's NBA draft, was escorted from Dulles on June 25, the day after he was drafted by the Washington Wizards. He arrived at the Verizon Center in a SUV-style limo, where he stepped onto a red carpet.

Police union chairman Kris Baumann said it's widely known within the department that such escorts are provided.

"As officers, we know this goes on a routine basis," Baumann said. "Just acknowledge it."

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Associated Press writers Joseph White and Barry Wilner in New York contributed to this report.

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Katy Perry Sues Magazine Over 'Other Man' Allegations

Newlywed Katy Perry is suing the Australian magazine NW over an article that suggests she cheated on actor/comedian hubby Russell Brand.

Reportedly, NW magazine ran a front-page story back in March claiming that the 26-year-old pop star had an "intimate relationship" with one of her producers, Benny Blanco.

Besides Perry, Blanco has also worked with stars like Britney Spears, Ke$ha, Justin Bieber, Mike Posner and Taio Cruz.

The headline read "World exclusive, Katy's other man." Perry, who tied the knot with British funnyman Brand in October 2010, decided to take legal action a month and a half after the March 11 story hit the stands, filing a lawsuit against the magazine's publishers on April 27.

The defamed Perry is not only pursuing damages but aggravated damages as well, which could cost the NW publishers a six-figure sum should she win the case.

We're guessing Katy is so not living the 'Teenage Dream' right now.

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Twilight stars, Ashley Greene and Kristen Stewart hate each other, sort of

hate’ is a little strong, and maybe we totally made that up, but it’s what we like to imagine and we’re running with it.

Twilight’s Ashley Greene, who plays spunky Alice Cullen, has revealed to In Style Hair that things aren’t always lovely and harmonious on set and has eluded to falling out with co-star Kristen Stewart. Dah dah daaaaaah!

She says that everyone’s

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