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In the new film "Behind the Candelabra," veteran entertainer Debbie Reynolds has just three major scenes to flesh out one of the most complicated figures in piano-playing showman Liberace's life: his loving but sometimes manipulative mother Frances.
The Oscar-, Tony- and Emmy-nominated Reynolds didn’t need to do any homework for the part. She knew Frances. Reynolds joined Liberace’s inner circle while both were doing stage shows in Las Vegas.
“I tell the story when Lee called me one night after work,” Reynolds remembered, using Liberace’s nickname. “I was at the Desert Inn, he was at the Hilton, and he said, ‘Debbie, I’ll pick you up after the show, and we’ll take Tom Jones. It’s his birthday.’”
“I have never had a better time than being Liberace’s date,” the 81-year-old Reynolds continued. “We all knew he was homosexual. That was a friend: You know what they love and the people that they love, and what they are.”
"Behind the Candelabra" picks up the story of Liberace, played by Michael Douglas, in the '70s and focuses on his six-year relationship with the much younger Scott Thorson, portrayed by Matt Damon. The movie premieres at 9 p.m. Sunday on HBO. On the heels of its theatrical world premiere this week in Cannes, the film begins a run in overseas cinemas starting in June.
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Mary J. Blige and her husband have been hit with a $3.4 million tax lien in New Jersey.
Court documents show the Internal Revenue Service filed a notice of a lien on the nine-time Grammy Award winner Feb. 7. That was two days before the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul was honored at a pre-Grammy party in Los Angeles.
Blige and husband Martin Isaacs have a home in Cresskill, N.J., about 15 miles north of New York City.
Court documents show as of the date of the IRS notice Blige owed more than $574,000 for the 2009 tax year, more than $2.2 million for 2010 and more than $647,000 for 2011.
A Blige representative said Thursday she’s working “with her new team to resolve all these issues as quickly as possible.”
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Country singer Tom T. Hall is 77. Actor Ian McKellen (“Lord of the Rings”) is 74. Country singer Jessi Colter is 70. Actress-singer Leslie Uggams is 70. Actress Karen Valentine is 66. Singer Klaus Meine of Scorpions is 65. Actress Patti D’Arbanville (“New York Undercover”) is 62. Actress Connie Sellecca is 58. Singer-guitarist Paul Weller of The Jam is 55. Actor-comedian Mike Myers is 50. Actress Anne Heche is 44. Actresses Sidney and Lindsay Greenbush (“Little House on the Prairie”) are 43. Actor Jamie Kennedy (“Scream”) is 43. Actress Octavia Spencer is 43. Actor Justin Henry (“Kramer Vs. Kramer”) is 42. Singer Lauryn Hill is 38. Actor Ethan Suplee (“My Name Is Earl”) is 37.
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