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PAMELA TO THE QUEEN: SPARE BEARS

Pamela Anderson has sent a petition to Queen… PAMELA TO THE QUEEN: SPARE BEARS

Pamela Anderson has sent a petition to Queen Elizabeth II urging Britain’s monarch to stop the use of bear pelts in making the tall black helmets worn by palace guards.

The charity People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said the former “Baywatch” babe collected 200 signatures from fans in Britain and mailed the petition to Buckingham Palace over the weekend.

In her petition, the 37-year-old actress argued that synthetic materials should be used to make the hats worn by guards who patrol the palace gate. The towering black hat, or busby, dates back almost 200 years to the Battle of Waterloo and is a key part of the uniform of the five guards’ regiments – the Coldstream, Grenadier, Irish, Scots and Welsh.

“We the undersigned urge the queen to call on the Ministry of Defense to cease the use of real fur on the uniforms for the regiment of foot guards,” the petition said.

Anderson collected the signatures at a London store where she was signing copies of her new novel on Thursday.

“PETA has worked with a top faux fur manufacturer to produce a material that is now being field tested by the Ministry of Defense to replace bear fur, but during this process bears continue to be killed to make these ceremonial hats,” said a PETA spokeswoman.

But army spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Dick-Peter said no suitable synthetic alternative had yet been found.

“The army has been working closely with PETA because they say they can produce a satisfactory alternative using artificial fiber,” he said. “So far, PETA has signally failed to do so.”

He added that “no bears are killed simply for the caps. The bears are killed to control the population. Where we can use an artificial alternative, we do so.”

Fake leopard skin is now worn by drummers in marching bands, while the smaller busby worn by members of the King’s Troop is no longer made from beaver fur.

BAD BACKUP

The singer Lenny Kravitz is being sued for what his neighbor claimed was $333,849 worth of water damage caused when Kravitz’s toilet backed up in their SoHo apartment building, the New York Times reported.

In the suit, the Amica Mutual Insurance Co. seeks to recover the money it says its client – Kravitz’s neighbor – spent repairing damage to his apartment, caused when Kravitz, a winner of several Grammy Awards, allowed the overflow.

The suit said that the water damage was “catastrophic,” and that it was caused “solely by the negligence and carelessness” of Kravitz.

It alleges, in flat wording, that in early August, Kravitz allowed “a commode to become blocked, clogged, and congested with various materials.”

In 2000, Kravitz paid about $8 million for the luxury multilevel penthouse with a wine cellar in the basement. Courtney Love, the rambunctious singer of the former group Hole, also owns an apartment in the building.

JAILBIRD LIVING

Martha Stewart has been exercising, reading and making friends in prison, but the food at the minimum-security prison camp in West Virginia is “terrible,” the domestic diva’s daughter said.

“I’m sure she could give them quite a few pointers, but I think that the budget is so limited that … I’m not sure how much change they’d be willing to make,” Alexis Stewart said on CNN’s “Larry King Live.”

Stewart said she had played Scrabble with her mother during her visits to the federal women’s prison in Alderson, W.Va.

“She was having a lot of fun playing Scrabble until I started beating her,” she said. “Now she decided she doesn’t want to play.”

Alexis Stewart said her mother has one roommate in a dormitory-type building that houses 80 women. The celebrity homemaker has not yet been assigned a job, but in the meantime she has been taking walks, going to the gym, watching television news and reading.

The prison allows her mother to have five books at a time, and she subscribes to newspapers, Alexis Stewart said.

Martha Stewart, 63, who was convicted of lying to investigators about a stock sale, is serving a five-month sentence and is expected to be released in March.

BRIDGING DIFFERENCES

The Dave Matthews Band wants to make amends after one of its tour bus drivers was accused of dumping human waste on sightseers on the Chicago River, but the band stopped short of accepting responsibility for the incident.

The Illinois Attorney General’s office sued the band and the driver after the Aug. 8 incident, alleging that the driver emptied the vehicle’s septic tank while crossing a bridge over the river, dousing more than 100 tour boat passengers with raw sewage.

The band said it had contacted the boat owner and tour operator to try to identify the affected passengers. The band also said it suspended the driver and is donating $50,000 each to the Chicago Park District and a nonprofit group that protects the Chicago River.

“We hope by reaching out and helping now this will help demonstrate our commitment to step up if we are found to be the responsible party,” the band said in a statement posted on its Web site.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Rock singer Jon Anderson (Yes) is 60. Actress Nancy Cartwright (“The Simpsons”) is 47. Rocker Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers) is 42. Actor Michael Boatman is 40. Violinist Midori is 33. Singer Ciara is 19.

(c) 2004, The Miami Herald.

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