The New York Daily News has an item today about Super Bowl finger-giver M.I.A. breaking up with her fiancé, Seagrams heir Ben Bronfman, and moving to London away from her three-year-old son. And what's that at the very end of the article? Is that... the original email from the gossip reporter to his or her editor?
Ben Bronfman (or "Ben Brewer" as he previously known) is the son of billionaire media mogul Edgar Bronfman Jr., the husband of singer (and cheese lover) M.I.A. (they're the parents of an eight-month-old son named Ikhyd Edgar Arular Bronfman), and the founder of the Green Owl, which is billed as the "Earth's first green music label" (and is backed by his father who happens to own Warner Music).
• Bruce Willis tied the knot with Victoria's Secret model Emma Heming this weekend at his home in Turks & Caicos. He's 54; she's 30. Guests at the wedding included his daughters, Madonna, and Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher. [NYP, LAT]
• Natasha Bedingfield got married on Saturday, too, to a California businessman in Malibu. [People]
• 64-year-old tech billionaire Jim Clark married his 28-year-old girlfriend this weekend with a four-day event on Richard Branson's Necker Island. Guests included Naomi Watts, Liev Schreiber and Ed Norton. [NYP]
• Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart finally got engaged. [People]
• Alas, it's not all happy news: Agyness Deyn and Albert Hammond Jr. have reportedly broken up. [NYM]
The hip hop star MIA on marrying Ben Brewer, the son of Edgar Bronfman Jr.: "I've always had that f**k-the-system mentality, and his dad is so 'the system.' But then, they're the most liberal family—they bootlegged alcohol, for God's sake. They're rich because they threw big, illegal parties, so I don't mind." [Page Six]
A few months back, M.I.A, the Brooklyn-by-way-of-London singer who derives her enthusiastically touted cred from her father's former existence as a Tamil Tiger terrorist, was thinking about abandoning our fair shores. Thank goodness she didn't, because we need brave cultural vanguardists like her to remind us that rich people are ruining the creative heart of New York! In an interview with artist Kehinde Wiley, M.I.A.—who also says she misses "being a real human," like when she lived in Sri Lanka "in the middle of a war and I was getting shot at"—bemoans the fact that "it's just become impossible for young, creative artists to live in New York."
♦ Not only did Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony renew their vows at 3:15 a.m. in Las Vegas on Sunday, they did it in a joint ceremony with Mets outfielder Carlos Beltran and his wife Jessica. [E!, People]
♦ Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson tell friends they're planning on dressing up as Todd and Sarah Palin for Halloween. [NYDN]
♦ Jay-Z couldn't get any London clubs to pay his $50,000 appearance fee this weekend. [This London Blog via E!]
♦ Is Suri Cruise lonely and sad because has no friends her own age? [P6]
It's nice to be the son of a billionaire media mogul—especially if you're trying to carve out a music career. Meet Ben Brewer, fiance of M.I.A., and son of Edgar Bronfman Jr. and one of the newest members of the Warner Music family. The aspiring rockstar doesn't sport his dad's famous last name—his mother is Sherri Brewer, the African-American actress who appeared in '70s movies like Shaft—but his father is Warner Music's chairman and, of course, heir to a multi-billion liquor fortune that he has squandered to the tune of billions over the past decade. To Brewer's credit, he's no newbie to the music scene; his band, The Exit, has been around for years. (And his dad has a history of handing out contracts to close pals, like Jimmy Dolan.) Whether or not The Exit is any good seems to be a matter of opinion: Roger Friedman, Fox gossip and Bronfman nemesis, described the group as "incredibly mediocre-sounding," and said they "sound like a Police cover band at a high school prom." You can judge for yourself on the band's MySpace page.
British/Sri Lankan songstress M.I.A, who's made a career out of critiquing American imperialism and namechecking the PLO, is reportedly marrying into the mega-rich, and Jewish, Bronfman family. She's engaged to Ben Brewer, the son of Edgar Bronfman Jr. and his first wife Sherri Brewer, and the guitarist for rock band The Exit. M.I.A.—or Maya Arulpragasam—recently announced that her visa was about to expire and she'd either have to marry an American or move to Canada. She's landed the triple whammy now: Her future father-in-law isn't only a billionaire, he's also the chairman and CEO of Warner Music, which means that a fresh record contract may very well come with the marriage and the Green card. And just think of how much more amusing Passover seder at the Bronfmans will be next year.
