An Indiana State University fraternity is renovating a funeral parlor to serve as its house. Phi Kappa Psi currently rents a house, but it can sleep only 10 people. The 32 member chapterÂ’s new four level house will have 27 bedrooms and 15 bathrooms.

The new place will house a plasma screen television donated by an alumnus and a disc jockey booth. Each resident will pay $350 a month. Some of the former Bedino Peace ChapelÂ’s areas are being adapted for use as lounges or other areas. A rock fountain on one wall will be left in place, and the old embalming room will become a coin operated laundry.

“I’m looking for someone to come in and bless that place before we move in,” said Aaron Vaught, president of the chapter.

The former funeral home is being renovated by the leasing company of Chad Overton, who graduated nine years ago and was in the fraternity. Students plan to move in this August. Members of the fraternityÂ’s Nebraska Beta chapter at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., also live in an old funeral home.

“As far as layout, it works well for a fraternity,” said Shawn Collinsworth, executive director of Phi Kappa Psi’s national organization.

--Oh, the hazing fun they'll have with THAT!

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Nifty: Finis SwiMP3 Underwater MP3 Player

A swimmer’s new best friend, this fully waterproof player holds up to 128 MB of music, and is both Windows and Mac compatible. Whether you’re doing laps or just taking a dip, the SwiMP3’s bone conduction mechanism—which transfers sound vibrations directly from the cheekbone to the inner ear—will keep sound crisp and clear under up to ten feet of water.

Price: $249.99

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The Broadway revival of "On Golden Pond" will close Sunday because its star, James Earl Jones, who is recuperating from pneumonia, can't return to the production next week.

"The entire `On Golden Pond' family is heartbroken to close this production prematurely, and it's especially disappointing that James Earl Jones won't be with us for our final performances," said producer Jeffrey Finn in a statement Thursday.

The statement said Jones' doctors had determined that "the seriousness of recuperating from pneumonia would prevent his return until sometime in August," adding that the actor is expected to make a full recovery during that time. Jones has been recuperating at home, the statement said.

--That's sad. Get well, James!

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Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Roger Ebert isn't a movie star but he critiques them on TV - so memorably that on Thursday he received his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

A crowd of family, friends and fans cheered as Ebert's star was unveiled in front of Hollywood's El Capitan Theatre. Attendees included director Werner Hertzog, actress Virginia Madsen and actor Tony Danza.

"When I watch movies, I can feel what it's like to walk in another person's shoes," Ebert, 65, told the crowd. "Movies make us more decent people. This is a wonderful day for me."

Ebert, who began his journalism career as a 15-year-old sports writer for The (Champaign, Ill.) News-Gazette, was named the Chicago Sun-Times film critic six months after joining the paper in 1966. In 1975, he became the first film critic to receive a Pulitzer for arts criticism.

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Attention all you (legal) music downloaders out there: Very soon the songs you purchase from iTunes could help pave the roads you drive on, pay for an artistic fellowship or buy books for kids in the school around the corner. Because in a number of states, budget proposals are targeting digital downloads, looking to make them taxable items, and therefore subject to state sales tax.

In New Jersey, Governor Richard J. Codey has called for an amendment to the state's sales-tax laws that makes downloads — including songs, movies and books — taxable items and subject to the Garden State's 6 percent sales tax. So in the future, every 99-cent song purchase from iTunes could now cost you $1.05.

Codey hopes the move will "level the playing field" for record stores in New Jersey that have to charge a sales tax for each CD sold, as opposed to digital music stores, which do not.

At least 16 states currently apply sales tax to digital downloads: Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Washington. According to New Jersey Treasury Department spokesperson Tom Vincz, as technology continues to outpace tax laws, more and more states will soon be added to that list.

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Famous Last Words:

Lindsay Lohan may be all over the big screen, but donÂ’t expect her to bare it all for a movie role. "You will never see me in a nude scene," Lohan tells Access Hollywood on Wednesday. "Then there's no mystery for my private life." The young star, who says she wants to be a respected actress, tells the show, "I don't think that's what's needed to win an Oscar for me."

On Wednesday morning, Lohan also told Today's Matt Lauer that if she had had her way, attention would be paid to her acting, not to her social life. Admitting that she hates the word "partying," the star of Herbie Fully Loaded, which opened Wednesday, said that she's a professional who would like a career just like Jodie Foster's. "She's my main person I always look toward," said Lohan, who turns 19 on July 2. "She was able to make the transition" into adult roles after a career as a child star. "I don't just want to be a celebrity," Lohan emphasized. "I want to be an actress."

With Lauer telling her that public perception of Lindsay Lohan is someone who "has romances with older men and parties without boundaries," Lohan responded: "I don't hang out in clubs as much as they say I do, I go out with friends and go out to dinner." To counteract sensational stories about her, she said, "The only thing you can do is ... know what the truth is, (because) the more you try to defend yourself, the more people say you're hiding something."

The conversation then turned to her weight. Lauer pointed out when he first started interviewing her, she was more full-figured. "I just hit puberty!" she shot back at him. As for her new, slimmer self, which also has been the subject of tabloid speculation, she said: "You grow up. You work out. You eat healthier. I was (accused of) having implants, then of taking them out."

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Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie didn't check in as "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" at the Parker Palm Springs Hotel a few weeks ago — according to Blackbook magazine, they used the aliases "Bryce and Jasmine Pilaf."

However, Jennifer Aniston is checked into Chicago's Peninsula Hotel as "Mrs. Smith." Inside TV magazine reports Aniston — in a $2,000-a-night suite for two months while shooting "The Break Up" with Vince Vaughn — gets a kick having the staff call her "Mrs. Smith." "Everyone at the Peninsula knows it's Jen," the weekly reports. "But hotel policy requires room servers to address guests by the name they're checked in under."

And in related news, Brad and Jen split again--this time, it's their production company, Plan B. At least four Plan B projects currently in development at Warners -- including The Assassination of Jesse James, starring Pitt, and the soon-to-be-released Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, starring Johnny Depp -- will remain at the studio, and will continue to involve Aniston, her spokesman tells the trade paper.

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Click here for pics of ParisSquared's "humble" love shack.

--Other than the one room that would clearly make anyone intoxicated vomit in, I'm in LOVE w/ the entire thing--from the layout to the decorating. n

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1 My God that's amazing. sigh.....

Posted by: kendra at June 23, 2005 09:59 AM (nJSjx)

2 Holy _____ umm .... whoa. Eh, give me 15 years.

Posted by: Iceman at June 23, 2005 10:36 AM (Xx4xo)

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Can I get a "Hell, Yeah!?!?!?"

George Clooney is back on the market.

The actor split up from on/off girlfriend Lisa Snowdon two weeks ago - over the phone no less.

The Oceans 12 star and the UK presenter/model have said that their long distance relationship was too difficult to maintain and "had nowhere to go". A Hollywood source told The Mirror: "They have remained great friends and there is no animosity between them."

The couple last snuck in some quality time at the beginning of May, but their hectic schedules meant that they've been unable to see each other since. The pair met in 2000 on the set of a Martini advertisement, but their different locations has always been an issue, causing them to split up once before.

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Bobby Brown is taking revenge in his upcoming reality show - by making a number of crude jokes about other celebrities.

The singer, whose troubles with drug abuse and legal woes have made him a target for comedians, cracks jokes about Eddie Murphy wearing dresses in his downtime during the first episode of Being Bobby Brown, and he makes no apologies for it.

He tells Newsweek, "I didn't censor myself at all while the cameras were on because that wouldn't be real. I don't mean anybody harm, but I've spent most of my career being the butt of somebody's joke, so I don't have too much concern about somebody's feelings getting hurt. If you can't take a joke, then you need to go somewhere and die - and definitely get out of this business."

The show is set to debut on US TV on June 30. (And I must admit, I cannot wait!)

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Katie Holmes may have alienated all of her longtime best friends but she's still trying to keep her parents in the loop — for now.

On Tuesday, Holmes and alien-fighting fiance Tom Cruise flew into New York and holed up in the Carlyle. "They have a huge suite and his mom and sister [his spokeswoman Lee Anne DeVette] are there and her parents are there. It's kind of a 'get to know you before the kids get married' session," said our source.

Holmes' parents — who are said to be a little weirded out by Holmes' new devotion to Scientology — might be more at ease after meeting Cruise's family.

--If her parents are smart, they'll kidnap her.

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50 Cent claims that on the set of his new movie he faced one of his hardest challenges - having to show his emotions.

The hip-hop tough guy, who's filming Get Rich Or Die Tryin', says blubbing in front of the camera didn't come naturally to him.

"When I was (on the street) and someone got killed, we'd go to the wake, pay respects and then we were gone. Emotionally, I am probably five years old".

--Oh Fiddy, let it OUT, buddy! Tap IN to those repressed emotions you couldn't show!

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Rumor has it that the Sharon Stone is preparing to pose naked.

Fifteen years after she did her first spread for Playboy, there are reports that she's doing it again. According to The Daily Mail, the 47-year-old Basic Instinct star has been offered a considerable wad to slip out of her clothes for a shoot in a tropical location.

"She has been asked to pose again before she hits the big 50," a source told the paper. "Sharon thinks it will be very sexy to pose in the sand."

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Following in the divalicious footsteps of legends like Liza Minnelli and Diana Ross, M.A.C Cosmetics has announced that French actress Catherine Deneuve—who’s been the face of Chanel No. 5—will serve as their new “beauty icon.”

Deneuve, who was recently in New York to present Elle publication director Gilles Bensimon with the CFDAÂ’s Eugenia Sheppard Award, will promote a color collection that will be launched internationally in February.

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You scored as Prep/Jock/Cheerleader. Prep/Jock/Cheerleader 100% Drama nerd 50% Geek 38% Punk/Rebel 19% Goth 19% Ghetto gangsta 13% Loner 0% Stoner 0% What's Your High School Stereotype? created with QuizFarm.com

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Twenty-two telegrams that Howard Hughes sent to Katharine Hepburn during their brief romance in the late 1930s are going on the auction block.

Dallas-based Heritage-Slater Americana is holding the auction of items associated with the reclusive billionaire, whose life of designing and flying planes and producing movies was dramatized in 2004's "The Aviator," directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Hughes.

The auction was to begin Wednesday evening and end Thursday. Included is a telegram that Hughes sent to Hepburn on Jan. 19, 1937 - the day he set a new air record, flying from Burbank, Calif., to Newark, N.J., in seven hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds.

The flight was over, and Hughes apparently was running behind schedule to meet Hepburn at Chicago's Ambassador Hotel before she performed in a play. "Supposed to arrive six something in the afternoon," the Western Union telegram reads. "Probably not in time to see you before the theater so will try to contain myself until eleven thirty, love Dan."

Dan was short for Dynamite, one of several nicknames the two shared, said Michael Riley of Heritage-Slater Americana, a subsidiary of Heritage Galleries. Riley said the owner of the documents, which include two 1939 handwritten draft telegrams by Hepburn, isn't being identified.

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She may not smell so good after a tennis match, but Wimbledon princess Maria Sharapova will have a sweet scent this fall, when she launches her very first fragrance.

Designed by Parlux, the eponymous perfume retails for $59.00 and contains floral and herbal notes chosen specifically by the tennis pro. “We created a few different scents for Maria,” said Marina Mangiarano, PR director for the new scent, “and then she had the final deciding factor as to which fragrance she wanted. She picked the one we thought she would; it’s a very bright, unique fragrance and it’s very feminine; she’s very girly.”

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A homeless man convicted of stalking Mel Gibson was sentenced to three years in prison by Superior Court Judge John Fisher in Van Nuys, Calif., on Wednesday.

Zack Sinclair, 34, a drifter from Idaho who represented himself during the course of the two-day trial (but who failed to call any witnesses to the stand), should be committed to a psychiatric ward, the judge recommended, according to court spokeswoman Pat Kelly.

Sinclair was arrested in September 2004 after violating a restraining order that banned him from going within 100 yards of the Malibu compound where Gibson maintains a residence, children's school and chapel.

Witnesses who were called to testify said that Sinclair told them he wanted a chance to share Mass and discuss the Catholic faith with Gibson, who directed The Passion of the Christ.

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"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

Clark Gable's line to Vivien Leigh in 1939's "Gone With the Wind" led the AFI's list, announced in the organization's annual top-100 special that aired on CBS Tuesday.

Brando had the No. 2 and 3 quotes — "I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse," from "The Godfather" and his "I coulda been a contender" speech from "On the Waterfront."

Judy Garland's Dorothy Gale came in fourth with "Toto, I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore," from The Wizard of Oz." At No. 5 was "Here's looking at you, kid," spoken by Rick (Humphrey Bogart) to Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) in "Casablanca."

Rounding out the top 10:

6. "Go ahead, make my day," Clint Eastwood, "Sudden Impact."

7. "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up," Gloria Swanson, "Sunset Blvd."

8. "May the Force be with you," Harrison Ford, "Star Wars."

9. "Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night," Bette Davis, "All About Eve."

10. "You talking to me?", Robert De Niro, "Taxi Driver."

--And MP&S must give a special nod to #90: "A martini. Shaken, not stirred" from "Goldfinger."

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After a screening of the film, Herbie: Fully Loaded, which opens Wednesday, Lindsay Lohan stomped out into the lobby of the El Capitan Theatre huffing, "I'm so (angry)!" Her team of handlers hurried her into a bathroom for a 12-minute cooling down period.

At a block-party carnival after the screening, Lohan was hugged by her mother, Dina, and received compliments from co-star Matt Dillon, before explaining her outburst.

"I was upset when I didn't hear my song (First) during the race scene, where I originally thought it would be," Lohan said while signing autographs. "I was like, 'Whoaaa,' because nobody stays to hear the song in the closing credits. "So I ran out."

First is especially important to her because "I recorded it right before I got sick (from exhaustion) and went to the hospital. And then I shot the video for it and re-sprained my ankle. I pushed myself to get it done for the movie when I probably should have waited."

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