Stories

Give ’em enough track
Joe Strummer, lead singer of British punk band The Clash, has been honored with a train named for him.

Strummer, who died in 2002 at age 50, was remembered at a naming ceremony Saturday at a railway station in Bristol, southwest England.

The Strummer train, a diesel locomotive built in 1965, follows a 200-year-old tradition of British trains being named after famous people. It will be operated in England by the Cotswold Rail company.

Strummer’s influential punk band rose to fame in the 1970s with hits including "London Calling" and "The Call-Up"

Originally born John Graham Mellor, Strummer died of a heart attack at his home in Somerset, southwest England, in December 2002.

Jane Fonda for self-esteem
Actress Jane Fonda shared her struggle with bulimia and quest for physical perfection at a conference of teenage girls in Montana, urging them to realize what it took her some 60 years to understand.

"The reason I’ve been excited about coming here is because I believe if we’re going to solve the problems confronting the world on every level, it’s going to have to be the girls who do it," Fonda said.

The keynote speaker for Montana State University’s Girls for a Change Conference on Saturday, Fonda told her audience of about 250 that her years of trying to look perfect have taken a great toll on her.

"I was bulimic for 35 years," Fonda said. "I mistook the physical hunger for spiritual hunger."

Fonda said that growing up, she never felt she was good enough, and learned at a young age that a woman’s role was to please her husband. "I knew intuitively that to be loved, I have to be perfect," she said.

Lindsey Lohan against it
Are you a Lohan girl, living in a Lohan world?

Lindsay Lohan, the red-haired "Mean Girls" star, is getting the Barbie treatment with a new doll made in her likeness. The doll is dressed in full red-carpet splendor, wearing a beige dress and a faux fur-trimmed coat.

The doll comes complete with a director’s chair and her very own velvet rope, the company announced recently. Part of Mattel’s "My Scene" line, the Lohan doll is due out in June and will retail for about $30.

The first peek at the Lohan doll will come at the annual American International Toy Fair, which starts Sunday in New York and concludes Feb. 23.

Lohan, 18, also starred in "Freaky Friday" and recently finished shooting "Herbie: Fully Loaded," an update of the Disney story about a plucky Volkswagen Beetle.

Why did Russell Simmons cross the Colonel?
Hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons has joined other celebrities and activists who have criticized Kentucky Fried Chicken, saying he will call for a boycott if the company doesn’t reform its slaughter practices.

Simmons called slaughter practices used by the fast-food chain’s suppliers "grossly inhumane" and has filmed a commercial "showing some of the very worst abuses chickens undergo" before they are served to customers, the Daily News reported Sunday.

Simmons, who is chairman of Def Jam Records and is a vegan, said he has talked to officials of Yum! Brands, the parent company of KFC, and said he will release the ad and start a boycott if the company does not reform its practices.

"When a company targets our community, disrespects us as consumers and sells us products ridden with negative energy and laced with toxins, that is our business," Simmons said.

Other celebrities and activists who have raised their voices against KFC include the Rev. Al Sharpton, comedian and social activist Dick Gregory, actor Pamela Anderson and musician Paul McCartney.

Yum! Brands vice president Jonathan Blum disputed Simmons’ claim.

"We have an independent panel of outside experts who set our high standards," Blum said. "They are the same standards that all our competitors use to insure humane treatment around the country."

A lesson in loyalty, Miller style
Just sipping a brewski gave Isac Aguero a career hangover.

Aguero, 24, said he was fired from his job with a Miller Brewing distributor, the same day a picture appeared in The Journal Times of Racine of him drinking a Bud Light, which is brewed by rival Anheuser-Busch Co.

The photo, taken Feb. 5, was part of the newspaper’s weekly "On the Town" feature, which depicts the city’s nightlife.

Aguero, who had been a forklift operator at CJW Inc. for four years, told the newspaper he was informed by co-workers when he arrived at work last week that he was in trouble because of the picture.

He said he was called into the general manager’s office and told he was fired. Aguero said he was not given a reason and claimed he never had problems with his bosses.

"It was a Saturday and I wasn’t at work," he told The Journal Times. "They can’t tell me what beverages I can drink. Bud Light’s my beer of choice, I always drink that. Just because I work there, do I have to change what I drink?"

Thomas Bey, a CJW sales manager, read a statement to The Associated Press on Friday and would not answer any questions. He said the company does not publicly discuss past or present employees.

"We consistently remind our employees that drinking alcohol is entirely a personal decision," Bey said. "The image and reputation of any company is determined in large part by the way its employees are seen to behave. Our employees can and should be our best ambassadors."

Call me … really
Detroit is a chilly town – in more ways than one.

The Motor City produces the most calls to the Rejection Hotline, a free telephone service that allows uninterested objects of affection to blow off come-ons.

It works like this: You’re asked for your telephone number by someone in which you have no interest. You might sound receptive by responding, "248-262-6861."

When that number is dialed, this is what they get: "The person who gave you this number did not want you to have their real number. Maybe the idea of going out with you just seems as appealing as playing leapfrog with unicorns … Do your best to forget about the person who gave you this number because, trust us, they’ve already forgotten about you."

The voice is that of Jeff Goldblatt, a 27-year-old Emory University student who developed Rejection Hotline in 2001. It now serves 29 cities in the United States.

The Detroit line has logged more than 1.2 million calls since it was launched last year, making it the most dialed of the 29 hotlines.

Cher Wardlow, who was given the number about a year ago, wasn’t amused. "It was mean," the 30-year-old store manager said. "I was kind of insulted. I didn’t think I was all bad. I thought he had lot of nerve."