People in the News

HOMER, Mich. — It was a haunted house, which meant Alice Cooper was right at home.

The shock rocker mingled with more than 150 fans Saturday at the Homer Mill, a haunted house-themed restaurant in south central Michigan. The 59-year-old Detroit native sat atop a black throne lined with skulls while he signed autographs.

"I’m a very accessible star,” Cooper said. "I never say no to an autograph. I never say no to a photograph. If it’s the public who made you, why hide from them?”

Cooper wore black leather from head to toe, but only after changing out of the orange T-shirt and jeans he’d worn during a morning round of golf in nearby Battle Creek. Cooper first said publicly years ago that taking up golf helped him beat alcoholism.

"I was drowned in alcohol, throwing up blood in the morning,” Cooper, who said he has been sober for 26 years, told the Jackson Citizen Patriot. "First thing in the morning, it was a drink. Then, it was another drink.

"I needed something to fill that space. Some people work out — I play 18 holes. That’s my regimen.”

Brad Pitt says he and Angelina Jolie are ready for a fifth child

VENICE, Italy — Brad Pitt and his partner Angelina Jolie are ready for another child, the actor said Sunday as he was promoting his new film.

Pitt and Jolie, with children in tow, were in Venice to talk about his film on Western outlaw Jesse James. The movie is competing for the top Golden Lion award at the city’s film festival.

Pitt and Jolie already have four children including a 15-month-old girl, Shiloh, born to the couple. Jolie has also adopted three children close in age from Cambodia, Ethiopia and Vietnam.

Asked by Italian state TV whether they were ready for a fifth, Pitt replied: "Yeah we’re ready.”

He did not indicate whether they planned another biological child or if they would adopt.

Earlier on Sunday, Pitt told a news conference fatherhood was fun and good for his work, though he’s not getting much sleep.

"It’s the most fun I’ve ever had and also the biggest pain ... I’ve ever experienced,” he said when asked what it was like to become a family with four children in a short space of time. "I love it and can’t recommend it any more highly — although sleep is nonexistent.”

Having four small children "makes me much more efficient because when I work, I really have to focus. I know I’ve less time to get things done. Actually, I’m quite pleased by it,” said Pitt.

"The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,” stars Pitt, Casey Affleck and Sam Shepherd, and was directed by Andrew Dominik. Pitt described it as "more a gangster film than a Western.”

Pitt plays James in the last year of his life as he lapses into paranoia over potential betrayal by accomplices and intimates.

Woody Allen says he has not influenced other filmmakers

VENICE, Italy — Oscar-winning director Woody Allen does not believe he has influenced other filmmakers.

Asked Sunday if his decades of work had left a mark, the 71-year-old New Yorker insisted that as far as he could tell, it has not.

"Oddly enough, over the years I’ve never felt that I have influenced anyone,” he said.

"I don’t mean that to sound like false modesty, but I could always feel the influence of my contemporaries — Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Altman, Steven Spielberg — but I have never seen my influence on anyone.”

Comedians Groucho Marx and Bob Hope also had some influence on him, Allen said at the Venice Film Festival, where his latest movie, "Cassandra’s Dream,” was premiering Sunday out of competition.

Starring Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell, the film tells the story of two brothers — one a chronic gambler and the other in love with a beautiful actress — who try to improve their lives but get entangled in a nasty situation.

The 71-year-old Allen likened life to "quite a tragic experience,” saying he has a "bleak, pessimistic view on life and man’s faith, the human condition.”

"But I do feel there are some extremely amusing oases in that mirage,” he hastened to add.

"Cassandra’s Dream” is Allen’s third film set in London, with the dark "Match Point” and the zany "Scoop,” both with Scarlett Johansson, the other two. He called London an "extremely seductive” place to work in.