Free Republic

Standing outside the courthouse where Anna Nicole Smith’s former companion is facing charges of illegally furnishing her with thousands of prescription pills, a defense lawyer ripped into the state attorney general today for pursuing the case in what he described as “a blatant attempt to advance his own political career.”

I make it 21 - but it's not a record. That, I think, goes to one man and his revolving door of backing musicians. I was wondering the other day which band boasts the highest numbers of past and present members. Who can rival Spinal Tap, from that bit in the film where David St Hubbins said he wouldn't miss Nigel Tufnell any more than any of the other "37, 38" members of the band. The first suggestion from the floor was UFO, the British heavy rock band who've been banging away for nearly 40 years now. The band that...

A prominent New York financier and art collector, Ezra Merkin, has been charged with a $2.4bn fraud for collecting money from clients under false pretences and secretly handing it to the jailed fund manager Bernard Madoff. New York's attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, has accused Merkin of acting as a middleman for Madoff and using the proceeds to fill his apartment with $91m worth of art. Merkin has one of the world's largest collections of Mark Rothko paintings. The charges came as French authorities seized a $7m yacht, Bull, moored near Madoff's Mediterranean villa in Cape d'Antibes. Bailiffs threw a chain...