People in the News

LAS VEGAS — Days after FBI agents searched a Las Vegas warehouse belonging to David Copperfield and a casino theater where the magician regularly performs, his lawyer rebutted an allegation that Copperfield "forced himself” on a woman.

"An unidentified woman has made serious allegations against David Copperfield,” lawyer David Chesnoff said Friday in a statement.

"It is important these allegations be put into perspective,” Chesnoff said. "Although authorities have not revealed her identity to us, we know these allegations are false because David Copperfield has never forced himself on anyone.”

Neither Chesnoff nor law enforcement officials would provide details about the allegation or the warehouse search.

Seattle FBI agent Robbie Burroughs said Thursday that the Las Vegas investigation was part of a Seattle case.

"The Seattle case is pending and that means we can’t say anything about it,” Burroughs said.

FBI agents on Wednesday searched the Hollywood Theater at the MGM Grand casino-hotel, where Copperfield regularly performs, casino spokeswoman Yvette Monet told The Associated Press.

Agents also conducted "investigative activity” at a warehouse where Copperfield stores tricks and memorabilia, dubbed the International Museum & Library of Conjuring Arts, FBI agent David Staretz said.

Copperfield, 51, has been a longtime performer at the MGM Grand, where he has performed in six- to eight-week stints several times a year, Monet said.

Copperfield performed two shows Wednesday night, which were at the end of his most recent run, Monet said. Copperfield was next scheduled to perform in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Coppola’s first movie in a decade premieres at Rome Film Festival

ROME — It is Francis Ford Coppola’s first movie in a decade, and the Oscar-winning director said Saturday that audiences should be in no hurry before deciding if "Youth Without Youth” is good or bad.

"Youth Without Youth” is Coppola’s first movie since "The Rainmaker” in 1997. It was having its public premiere Saturday evening at the Rome Film Festival.

At an earlier screening for the press, reactions were mixed, and Coppola asked people to see it more than once.

"When you venture into new territories ... you know that it’s different than ’Spider-Man’ or ’Shrek’ or other films that are immediately met with success. So, part of being an artist who wants to look at new areas (is knowing that) it will take a while for people to be familiar with the film,” he said. "I only ask you to think that my film was interesting.”

"Youth Without Youth” tells a metaphysical story about a 70-year-old Romanian professor of linguistics who miraculously becomes younger after being struck by lightning. The accident gives him abnormal intellectual abilities which attract the attention of the Nazis as World World II looms.

Bill Maher helps security clear his audience of rowdy protesters

LOS ANGELES — Bill Maher can add "security guard” to his job description alongside comedian and political commentator.

Maher helped security give the boot to a rowdy protester from the studio of his weekly HBO show "Real Time with Bill Maher” on Friday night, and it was all captured on live television.

Maher was talking science during one of his weekly panel discussions when a protester in his audience stood, held up a smuggled-in sign reading "9/11 is a cover up fraud” and shouted comments to the same effect.

The host tried to shout down the audience member, who only became more agitated.

"Do we have some (expletive) security in this building,” Maher yelled, "or do I have to come down there and kick his (expletive)?”

When security reached the man’s aisle and he resisted leaving, Maher ran into the seats and helped them push him out the door, shouting "Out! Out! Out!”

Several other protesters, sprinkled throughout the audience, then stood up and shouted.

"This isn’t the Iowa Caucus, OK, we’re not here to debate,” Maher shouted with most of his audience cheering him on. "This is the problem with live television.”

The incident was shown live on the East Coast, and the network appeared to show the entire affair unedited for the taped-delayed West Coast version.

After the instigators were ejected, Maher told his panelists — MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, Los Angeles Times columnist Joel Stein and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson — that they often linger outside his studio to share 9/11 conspiracy theories with him and try to get into the show.

"It’s the only time I defend Bush,” he said.

"I’m thinking about firing my audience department,” he added.

Regular audience members found the ruckus thrilling.

"We picked a very exciting night to be here,” Eliot Stein, a 54-year-old high school teacher, said via cell phone. "There’s few live TV shows anymore, and here you got to see, it was like a movie. it was great.”

Stein’s friend John Lovell said "It was positively surreal.”

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards and wife Elizabeth had been in the studio for an interview before the panel discussion and dustup.

Elizabeth Edwards was shown in the audience after her husband’s interview, but it was not clear whether she remained in the seats during the incident.

Phone and e-mail messages left with HBO officials late Friday were not immediately returned.